Your Kind

Danny Tang swung the yacht towards the dock, he called out to his best friend Liam, 'Hey Liam, you want to help me drop anchor?'.

The Irish man, smiled and nodded, 'Okay Danny!'

It was about three in the afternoon when Danny's yacht finally docked at the harbour.

Danny, a self made multi-millionaire, had come to Canada from Hong Kong just before the handover to China. He had also brought his family over, his wife Natalie and their two teenage children, Joe and Katie.

Liam was the family friend, the kids called him 'uncle Liam'. Fifteen years ago, Danny and Liam were business partners, later on, they branched out to run their own separate corporations.

'Who's hungry?' asked Danny to the small crowd that had assembled on the pier waiting for the last man to get off the boat.

The kids yelled in a broken unison, 'Me! me! me!' Nobody had eaten lunch that day.

'Howabout we go to the yachting club for lunch?' said Liam.

'Hoooray!!' shouted the kids.

'I'm not a member of that club, Liam.' said Danny.

'Oh really?! I thought you were.' said Liam with surprise.

'It's okay, I should think about joining anyway.'

The yachting club was a large three level timber frame building with long balconies that wrapped themselves around it's exterior. Tall glass windows shielded by wooden shutters provided privacy to the members inside.

Liam was not a member of the club, but he had been there before as a guest, he led the family to the entrance. Liam walked into the building, but just as the family were about to enter, a security guard stopped the family by blocking them with his arm. 'Members only!'

'I'm so sorry!' replied Danny, his angled upwards to meet the unemotional eyes of the man.

Liam came back and told the security guard that they had come to sign up for membership at the front desk. After a slight uncomfortable hesitation, the guard feeling defeated, reluctantly let the family through.

Liam walked towards the front desk past the small water fountain as Danny followed. His wife Natalie and the kids took a seat on a curved bench in the foyer. Joe slouched forward on the edge of the seat with his hands supporting his chin. Katie scolded him to sit upright.

A lady wearing a the yacht club's blazer was tiredly gazing into a computer monitor at the desk.

'Excuse me!' said Liam.

The woman looked up. Danny had just arrived and his movement caught her attention first. She stared at him, expressionless, then she turned over and noticed Liam, her face stretched into a smile. 'Yes sir! how can I help you?'

'We're interested in joining the yacht club.' replied Liam as he glanced quickly at Danny.

'That's not a problem sir.' She tapped her keyboard, 'What's your name please, sir?'

'Er, it's not for me, it's for my friend over here...' He smacked his hand onto Danny's shoulder.

She turned her head towards Danny as she slowly blinked, 'The membership fee to join this club is very expensive.'